HIS statue has presided over the transformation of the Hayes in Cardiff into Wales’ premier shopping district – and is often seen with a traffic cone on its head.

HIS statue has presided over the transformation of the Hayes in Cardiff into Wales’ premier shopping district – and is often seen with a traffic cone on its head.

Yet is the Victorian Liberal hero John Batchelor – a man renowned for standing up for the people of Cardiff against the Bute family – the man to symbolise Wales’ capital in the 21st century?

A South Wales AM yesterday sparked a row by calling for the man dubbed the ‘Friend of Freedom’ to lose his privileged place at the heart of the Hayes.

Conservative regional AM David Melding said Cardiff needed to give more prominence to figures of national Welsh importance to become a more genuine national capital

Mr Melding argued that Prime Minister David Lloyd George, a first-language Welsh speaker from the Lln Peninsula, should be given the privileged spot next to the £675m St David’s shopping mall next to a statue of St David.

“Can anyone tell me why the Hayes is presided over by John Batchelor?” wrote Mr Melding on the Waleshome.org website.

“What did he do of national significance? Now that the splendid St David’s 2 development is complete, why not replace this obscure Victorian with St David?”

He added: “Let’s shift David Lloyd George who is presently hidden away in shrubbery, his back to the city, near the National Museum.

“I would put the greatest politician that Wales has produced – the last PM that was a leader of the western world – in the Hayes to keep St David company.”

Mr Melding’s blast against John Batchelor, a timber merchant whose struggles as a Liberal councillor against the dominant Tory-supporting Bute family earned him the title ‘Friend of Freedom’, was written in a piece musing on how Cardiff could make itself a more popular capital – and arguing the city needed to market its architectural, sporting and academic achievements better.

Yet the Conservative AM faced backlash yesterday from former city council leader Russell Goodway, who accused him of being “pathetic” and said Wales’ capital needed to concentrate on providing jobs and wealth not shifting statues.

Councillor Goodway pointed out that City Hall was already stuffed with statues of prominent Welsh figures including Hywel Da and Iolo Morgannwg and that Nye Bevan took pride of place on Queen Street – and also often had a traffic cone on his head.

Coun Goodway: “I think it’s pretty pathetic. If the badge of a capital city is that it has statues of prominent figures, we have those, but I do not share the view that that’s going to achieve his ambition of making Cardiff the capital of Wales.

“Cardiff needs investment in infrastructure to support the region that it serves.

“To be a true capital, Cardiff needs to create employment, draw in visitors and be the cultural heart of the country. We’ve made vast progress in the last 15 years but it has slowed down.

“I despair if he feels that Cardiff needs to be filled with statues of the great and the good of the past.”

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